


The Cottage

by SuhailaUniverse



Category: Outlander (TV), Outlander Series - Diana Gabaldon
Genre: F/M, Missing Scene, season 2 finale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-15
Updated: 2016-07-15
Packaged: 2018-07-24 06:29:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7497705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SuhailaUniverse/pseuds/SuhailaUniverse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As Jamie and Claire make a desperately frantic dash for Craigh Na Dun - unbeknownst to a highly emotional Claire - Jamie takes them on one last detour, before having time itself rip them apart.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Cottage

They lay intertwined, still joined, slowly coming back to themselves, neither ready for the inevitable separation that was to come. She felt his body tremble and knew the shivers weren’t just the aftershocks of their lovemaking – but of fear. She stroked the length of his back, over and over, easing his body into relaxation as he buried his face into her neck, trying to catch his breath.

“D’ye remember this place?” he asked suddenly into her hair, then slowly propped himself up on his elbow.

She looked up at him, unable to keep from running her fingertips through his scruff, the comforting rough tickle of it putting a wistful smile on her face. _How could this be it,_ she thought helplessly, _how could this be our end?_

“It’s where we first met,” she said softly, unable and unwilling to keep her voice from cracking. “Where I mended your shoulder.” She leaned up towards him, planting a tender, lingering kiss just where she remembered his now bare and perfectly positioned shoulder once stood incredibly out of joint.

Their hands freely roamed, fingertips committing to memory every valley and hollow.

“Aye,” he said smiling back at her, his eyes glistened with the memory. “I’ll never forget just how bonny you were that day. All dirty and disheveled, yer hair a beautifully messy mass about your shoulders. Ye were so brave and strong, _mo nighean donn_ , even though I could see ye were frightened. The moment ye touched me, I knew… knew I’d never be able to let ye go, Sassenach.”

“Jamie…” she began, but he swallowed her reply in a deep and languid kiss. Her body arched towards his, trying to bring him deeper into her, to lose themselves in each other once again – one last time.

***

She hadn’t realized in their mad rush away from Culloden Moor till the cottage had come into view, that he’d taken a detour on their way to Craigh Na Dun. Two hours he’d asked of Rupert, and two hours he’d meant to fully take advantage of. To truly savor her, body and spirit. And for her to love and shatter him till she took his soul wholly within her, for he wouldn’t have need for it once she’d gone.

And so they’d crashed into the now abandoned and dilapidated cottage, ripping at each other’s clothing desperately seeking to join, yet knowing this was the last time they’d hold each other in this way. All at once, it dawned on them; now was the time to slow down – devil take the world - to memorize all they were, and all they were about to lose. Two hours to capture a lifetime of love and desire. _Two hours_.

They stood in the midst of the cottage’s shambles, half their clothes strewn haphazardly around them, their breathing heavy with want. Then gently, Jamie drew her to him, forehead to forehead. And they started undressing one another once more, this time carefully and deliberately. She couldn’t hold back her tears, letting them run freely as the overflow of emotion was just too much to keep at bay. He kissed her wet cheeks, trying to absorb her pain, give her what strength he had left, but he too couldn’t keep from feeling that unbearable ache the painfully gripped his heart. And now, on the brink of losing their home, she meticulously loved him, as he did her, and as the tension in their bodies built uncontrollably, they came together in a delirious frenzy that was sure to shatter them both.

***

Now they lay like magnets snapped together on a bed of cloaks and clothes, bodies reluctant to give up the connection they’d just so powerfully forged. But the time had come, they both knew. And yet, _No,_ she still thought stubbornly, _I’ll pull him through with me if I have to!_ _I’m not ready. I never will be._

He began to rouse himself, knowing the fighting was surely to begin soon; he needed to get her to that damned hill. See her safe. “Come, Sassenach, it’s time we get moving, aye.” He said pulling her up to sit beside him. They quietly dressed, all the while never taking their eyes off each other.

With one last glance at the cottage, Jamie urged the horse toward Craigh Na Dun, Claire’s grip around his waist instinctively tightening. Before his resolve could waver, Jamie rode them hard and fast, he could feel her nails digging through his clothes, into his flesh. Every inch of him screamed to turn and run away with her, but he knew there was only one thing that mattered now – her. Her and his bairn.

**Author's Note:**

> “In the book it’s very different, because they stay overnight in a cottage and we were condensing the time and because we’d filmed things in Season 1 where there was no cottage, we couldn’t do that, so then there was a whole thing about ‘where do they have their last moments together? They have sex and where is that gonna be?’  
> There was a lot of talk about up against a tree and I was like ‘no, not gonna happen that way! That’s so not romantic, it can’t be up against a tree, that’s not right,‘” she laughs, recalling the moment. “I was so adamant about it, and they were like ‘well, it’s gonna be cold and wet, are you gonna wanna be on the ground?’ I was like ‘I don’t care, I’ll be on the ground, it can’t be against a tree.’ It just seemed so wrong and so not beautiful.”  
> \- Caitriona Balfe, from her interview with Variety.
> 
> So, 2 things about this popped out at me when I read this.
> 
> First: Thank fucking God for Caitriona Balfe! I mean, honestly PTB, it’s as if they couldn’t even be bothered any more at that point. Can you just imagine! I’m no fan of what we got, but I’m sure as hell glad we didn’t get the alternative!
> 
> Second: I don’t quite agree that they didn’t have a place to go for their final night/coming together. They may not have established *that* cottage from the book, but there was a place on the show, one that could have - for me - been pretty perfect.
> 
> And so this wee 'Cottage' ficlet came to life, one that fits itself just before they get to the stones in the season 2 finale.


End file.
